centershots wrote:.....I also have medical scissors in the car and if the dogs have been swimming and in the mud I'll just go to the seem of the boot and cut straight up and pull the boot off.

You're on top of things George..... The blunt nose scissors are what I use. No danger of nicking the dog. I use mine mostly for cutting off the vet wrap. Small enough to fit in my vest first aid kit. They sure come in handy at times.~

cr

VC TJ's Highfalutin Hawkeye MH, UTI

VC TJ's Miss Filson MH, UTI R.I.P. 5/13/03-10/15/14

Thunderhead's All Jacked Up R.I.P. "My Buddy" 9/9/09-1/27/14

"I'd rather train for perfection than fix the problems of mediocrity" ~ Me

"There are always going to be those who prefer to freeze in the dark rather than put forth the effort to light a fire." ~ Lvrdg07

JTracyII wrote:Found the mother load of quail. The problem is there were a lot of cactus and my wife and I spent hours last night picking out the pins from the prickly pear cactus. I want to go back with a group of friends this weekend, but need some suggestions on how to prevent so many cactus from attaching themselves to my dog. I ordered Lewis boots before I went but they are back ordered. Don't think I'll get them before this weekend. I used tire inner tubes for the paws and they helped some, but they rubbed the tops of his toes so that he has no more hair on some of them. Maybe they were too tight. Most of the cactus were about 8 inches up on each leg down and became more prevalent as you movedtowards the paw. I thought about putting some wrap on the legs and taping some tire inner tube around the legs starting 6 or so inches up on the leg and loosening the boots around the paws. I had a vest on him and it did it's job. Suggestions?

I use 4" fat tire bike tubes and it still rubs the hair and skin off the knuckles. My fix is buying bulk packs of cheap kid's shortie socks at Walmart. I run a full width strip of duct tape around the ankle with the sticky side out, put the sock on and stick it to the tape half way up, the stick the boot to the top half of the tape overlapping the sides. Then run one wrap around everything but the tongue, pull the tongue up, run another wrap and your done. The sock stays on well. Using vet wrap results in rubbing between the toes. All the premade nylon boots I ever tried also rubbed the crap out of toes. Duct tape boots as well. This is the best setup that I've found. I've tried the Lewis boots and like these better. Don't bother putting anything up on the dog's legs. They don't need it, and adding it is likely to wear skin off sumewhere.

Prickly pear? Nothing stops it, but like other said, your dog eventually starts to avoid them. My biggest issue where I hunt is sand spur and buffalo bur. They are brutal on dogs without boots.

If we avoided everywhere there was cactus, we would not have any place to hunt. The dog doe not purposely go into cactus most of the time but sometimes there is no choice. Then there is the pesky rodent that likes to hide out in the base of them and the dog cannot resist them. We dont use tubes, I just pluck them in between changing fields or at the end of the day. I have never noticed any adverse affects. Now these 5 foot rattlesnakes, thats something to worry about but I try to minimize the risk. It all just comes with the territory.